Gael walter volney



i UNrrn STATES idnrnisr QFEiCEs CARL \VALTER VOLNE Y, OF 'IOMS RlVER, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO ARDEN OF NEEZ YQRK, N. Y.

EXPLGSWE CQMPQUNQ.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters iPatent hi0. 383,4E20, dated May 22, 1888.

Application filed No 2, 1887. Serial No. 254,101. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL WALTER VoLnEY, of Toms River, Ocean county, State of New Jersey, a citizen of the United States, have invented an- Improved Explosive Compound,

of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention isto produce an explosive cornpound for blasting purposes, composed, essentially, of ordinary granulated black blasting-powder and nitro-glycerine, which is absorbed by the black powder, and in which the grains or particles of the powder will have their absorption capacity augmented, and after absorbing the nitroglyceriue retain r their-granular fprrn and structure.

' Hcretoiore in combining nitro-glys erine with the granules of ordinary black blastingpo'wder the addition or absorption of the nitroglycerine has caused. the disintegration of .20 the granulated powder, and has reduced the mixture to a pasty, sticky, ordeliquated mass, .which, as such, has been unserviceable as a true powder, and to remedy this the grains of the powder which is to receive the nitro glycerine have heretofore been hardened and polished, and thus rendered practically nonabsorbent; or such grains have been coated or varnished with a non-absorbent and fluid-rcsisting material, the treatment in either case c being for the purpose of preventing the absorption by the powder; granules of the nitroglyccrine, and to. insure the adherence of the nitro-glycerine thereto when added as an external coating only; but any of such prevailing treatments of a granulated powder prior to the mixturetherewith of nitro-glycerine, and as a preparatory step thereto, are necessarily comparatively costly and laborious and involve increased risk in the process of manu- 0 facture.

By means of my hereinafterdcscribed invention I am enabled to obviate the necessity "of a tedious, expensive, and comparatively dangerous preparation of the grains of the granulated powder to prevent their disintegration after the combination therewith of the. nitroglycerime, and I fabricate a blastingpowdcr in 'which the grains of the powder are not artificially hardened or polished, not: coated or varnished with a nonabsorbing subon explosion.

stance in the course of manufacture; but said grains have their absorption capacity increased, and when they have absonbed nitroglycerine will not be thereby disintegrated or deliqnated, but will retain their original form 5 and structure, thus bonstitnting as a 0011ipleted. compound a granulated powder which is a high explosive.

In carrying out my invention l pmploy the :usual ingredients of ordinary black blusting- 6o powder for the granulated powder-namely,

charcoal, sulphur, and a nitrate, as of sodium.

To these ingredients I add a certain quantity of starch in the form of a paste, as hereinafter set forth, and all these named ingredients, 6 5 when mixed as hereinafter described, I granulate, as presently specified, and the resulting powder I combine with nitroglyccrine, as hereinafter set forth.

In fabricating this powder I proceed as fol 7o lows: The starch is first converted into a-paste; or jelly by being dissolved, and then treated with boiling water. With this paste there 18 then thoroughly incorporated the ingredients of ordinary black blasting-powder, constituting 5 the gas-producingmaterial--namely,amixture of charcoal, finely ground, sulphur, when used,

anda nitrate, such as sodium, potassium, or

ammonium nitrate. The mass being thus mixed in a wet state, there is no risk attending the operation. The mass when thoroughly mixed is spread out or rolled into sheets and dried, and then broken up or granulated in the ordinary manner. v

The relative proportions of the chareoahsuh phur, andnitrate may be substantially those of ordinary black blasting-powder, and should of course be preferably such as will effect a perfect combustion of the carbon in the mixture I find that the following proportions produce a good and effective resu lt: seventy-three (73) parts, by weight, of sodium lllilfivlifi, twelve (12) parts of charcoal, and ten (10) parts of sulphur. I take-five (5) parts of starch, by weight, andrnake the same-into paste with eighteen (18) or nineteen (19) parts of water. Into the paste, heated, I stir and thoroughly mix the mixture of the charcoal, sulphur, and nitrate. The mass is then spread out in sheets, dried, and granulated in the ice manner usually employed in the manufacture of black powder, The mass of the gas-producing materiahwith which has been combined ihc starchpaste, as described, will, when the water of the paste is dried out or evaporated, be of a houeycoinbed or cellular structurefthc water as it evaporates leaving due or capi, pry interstices or cells extending throughout the mass,and the starches" the paste being left incorporated in ihe mass. W hen this dried mass is granulated, the granules will possess a greater absorptive capacity, owing to their cellular structure, than is possessed by grains of ordinary black powder formed of the usual ingredients in the customary scanner. I have found that this granulated powder possesses the peculiar characteristic that the grains, while possessing the increased absorptive ca pacity stated, are not affected in form and structure nor deliquated by the absorption of nitroglyccrinc, but that upon being mixed with nitroglycerine and absorbing it they will retain their full granular form and structore, and the resultantniixture will maintain itself as a granulated powder. I find that the mixture of ten (10) parts of nitroglyceriue with ninety (90) parts of the described granulutcd powder will constitute an effective high explosive, especially adapted for use in blast-- log The proportion of the nitroglyceriue in the completed compound may, however, be

- increased or decreased, depending upon the strength and quickness of detonation desired,

-. its employment heretofore as an ingredient of black blasting-powder hasbeen solely as a substitute for a greater or less portion of the carbonaceous material therein, and wholly with a view to economy in cost, and the explosivc produced has been of an exceedingly low gralde. Furthermore, when heretofore em ployed in a high explosive as an ingredient of the mixture of substances which absorbed nitro-glyccrine, its employment, both as regards its proportion in the mixture and the substances with which it'has been admixed, diners-materially from its use in myiuvention and with a totally-different result, the re sulting completed explosive after the absniption of nitro-glycerine having beeu'in such cases a plastic or semi-plastic mass, resembling in permanent structure the several kinds of dynamite, and not a granulated powder.

I do not employ starch in my described com pound as the equivalent of any portlon of the carbon, nor, infact, as a true ingredient of the @ddildd gas-producing material of the granulated powder. Starch being slower in combustion, and thus less edective as a gas'producing substance in an explosive, its presence in any consider able proportion is not desirable in acompound. intended to be a high explosive; but starch, as

forms the sole function of rendering the mass combined us a paste. cellular or honeycombed in struotnrowhen the water of the paste is granular structure of the grains when thesanie have absorbed nitro-glycerinc, and the starch is present in my compound in so compara' tively small a quantity or proportion that its presence does not practically afiect the charactor of the compound as a high explosive, I am not aware that any one has heretofore coniproportions stated, and thus produced a granulated powder which is cellular or honey- OOIllbQd. in structure and therefore of increased absorptive capacity, and which,when permitted to absorb nitro-glyceriue', will retain and preserve its granular form.

I am furthermore not aware that a high em plosivc has been heretofore fabricated composed of ordinary black blasting powder, with the ingredients of which has been combined starch,in the manner herein set forth,andlfor1niug an absorbent granular powder, together with nitro-glycerine absorbed by the granules, and in which resulting and completed explosive the granules oi the powder, owing to the presence of the starch therein,while being absorbcut, as stated, will maintain their granular structure after such absorption of nitroglycerinc, and donut in consequence of such absorption disintegrate or deliquatc.

gredients of the ordinary black powder in my compound may be varied within the limits specified, and also that sulphur may be omitted, the remaining oxidants-such as nitrate of 0i'soda-- being then proportionately increased; and,furthermore, that such carbohydrates-as for example, dextrine offiour ofcereals' containing starch in snfilcient quantity as will by the presence thereof in the mixture produce the described cellular structure of the grains and maintain the granular character of .the powder in the final compound after the nitroglycerine has been absorbed by the granules-- may be used in place of starch as a paste in my compound.

n-What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- v v 1. An explosive compound consisting of. a mixture of charcoal and an oxidant, as nitrate of sodium, with which is combined starch in about the proportions named, and-forming an absorbent granular powder, together with nitro-glycerine absorbed by tho powder granules, said granules being maintained as'such of the gas-producing material,with'which ibis I bined starch with the gas-producing material; of ordinary black powder in substantially the It is obvious that the proportions oflthe in-.

I employ it in my described invention, pcrevaporated, and preserves and maintains the" and constituting a granular powder after said absorption of nitro-glycerine, and adapted for use'in such granular form, substantially asdescribed.

As an article of manufacture, an absorbent granular powder composed of charcoal, an oxidant, as nitrate of sodium and starch, combined in about the proportions and in the manner specified, and constituting a powder the granules of which are cellular or honeycoinbed in structure, and adapted to absorb 'nitroglycerine and to maintain their granular form after such absorption, as set forth.

- 3. In the manufacture of an explosive cornpound, the process of producing a granular powder, which consists in combining starch dissolved and boiled in water as a paste, in

about the proportion named,with the gas-producing ingredients of black powder-as, for example, charcoal and an oxidant, as sodium nitrate-and then evaporating the water of the paste from the mass, whereby when the dried massis granulated the resulting granular powder will consist of granules which are cellular or honeycombed in structure, and' H. T. ABRAMS,

F. A. BRAINERD. 

